[Archived] Rovers Might Have Been Sold?

[Baz]

Syed has lent the company over $1bn from his own funds according to those accounts. The loans are non-interest bearing but do need to be repaid within 10 years.

If he has that money personally to invest in a business, he surely must have more sitting in investments / banks etc... why risk all his money otherwise.

The only thing I would question is how good the auditors in Bahrain are, and what relationship Bahrani banking would have to UK financial regulation.

How he got the money - thats still interesting and unanswered.

[47er]

Could be that jain is for real and has been advised to keep his head down (goldberg squeezing him for some new juicy gossip), or they've both realised they have opened a can of worms messing with us northerners

Or, less controversially maybe they are just watching the England match

My personal opinion on this whole thing is that I, like most rovers fans wants this guy to be legit because we've quietly punched above our weight for quite some time via a sensible, yet sometimes frustratingly strict business model, and a likeminded owner with a bit more funds would fit in with rovers approach but allow a bit more ambition. Despite the differing opinions on the touted potential owners We all seem to agree that we have a fair amount of confidence in both rothchilds and the trust to do their homework, in which case we should do what we can to let them make the decision, rather than allow rumours and gossip to sway fans against syed (or any other interested party) before anything is proven - it is easy to ruin a reputation by striking first and creating the proverbial smoke, especially during this time of uncertainty amongst fans

pretty much sums up my feelings.

[OJRovers]

More interesting stuff:

WGA Annual report 2009

Strange set of Accounts - look very professional but there is SO much waffle at the front about their vision, values, mission statement - but you don't actually see what their main business is.

The $1bn is on there as 'funds available for investment', but there was no cash moved in the year. It says they had entered into a $500m credit facility but this was undrawn, so no cash paid out.

Seems odd that they increased turnover (and assets) by so much but their capitalised IT expenditure was only $3,000 (probably 1 new computer for 1 new staff member) how did they increase advisory fees by $70m in the year? ($80m from $10m in 2008)

Also looks like any revenue was purely recharged against liabilities and wasn't actually received in cash, again no detail on what activities provided these advisory fees. Edit - in fact all of the income is Related Party (meaning it is either the directors charging the company or from another company under their control)

Overall, you could set up a company like that and produce a vague set of accounts by setting up a series of related transactions, however the one thing which will have to have been checked by BDO the auditors was the existence and availability of the $1,000,000,000 by Mr Syed.

What they are quite trying to achieve with the company it is not clear!

This is not having a go at the guy but just a viewpoint purely based on the set of accounts.

[booth]

Could be that jain is for real and has been advised to keep his head down (goldberg squeezing him for some new juicy gossip)

Funny you should say that, earlier today Goldberg left his email address and asked Jain to contact him personally, saying he could "help" him.

The message from Goldberg was removed about ten minutes later.

Who should we trust? Not sure about Ali Syed yet, but certainly not Goldberg with the strange editing decisions on his Facebook page

[Hughesy]

I posted those accounts on here either monday or sunday too! £1.1bn loan to the company from Mr Syed himself.

[Blueboy Downunder]

i don't understand all of this finance crap, so with that in mind i am one fan who will remain forever cynical, until the day that somebody buys us, whith plenty of dosh to back them and us.

[rebelmswar]

I posted those accounts on here either monday or sunday too! £1.1bn loan to the company from Mr Syed himself.

Burning the midnight oil Hughesy?

Again the rolleyes confounds me. I will never get the hang of that one.

[deryck guyler's spoon]

Burning the midnight oil Hughesy?

Again the rolleyes confounds me. I will never get the hang of that one.

Thenodrog's tick appears to be spreading.

[otto man]

Wasn't there a whisper of some kind of statement being released? I take it nothing happened?

[Blackburn Ravers]

Wasn't there a whisper of some kind of statement being released? I take it nothing happened?

Nothing yet Otto Man, hopefully there might be something tomorrow morning

[otto man]

Nothing yet Otto Man, hopefully there might be something tomorrow morning

Cheers dude!

[rebelmswar]

Ohhhhhhh all of the Mr. Whateverhisnameis's stuff has been removed from Facebook.

Could we be in for a follow up from 5 Live - The 90000 Pound Question, Goldberg Answers?

Or nothing.

[AggyBlue]

The stuff about WGA and its finances was covered about 100 pages ago, I feel like I'm in a timewarp on this thread.

How about some stuff on the company that will be buying Rovers, Western Gulf Advisory AG, based in Switzerland,

[Strahany]

Strange set of Accounts - look very professional but there is SO much waffle at the front about their vision, values, mission statement - but you don't actually see what their main business is.

The $1bn is on there as 'funds available for investment', but there was no cash moved in the year. It says they had entered into a $500m credit facility but this was undrawn, so no cash paid out.

Seems odd that they increased turnover (and assets) by so much but their capitalised IT expenditure was only $3,000 (probably 1 new computer for 1 new staff member) how did they increase advisory fees by $70m in the year? ($80m from $10m in 2008)

Also looks like any revenue was purely recharged against liabilities and wasn't actually received in cash, again no detail on what activities provided these advisory fees. Edit - in fact all of the income is Related Party (meaning it is either the directors charging the company or from another company under their control)

Overall, you could set up a company like that and produce a vague set of accounts by setting up a series of related transactions, however the one thing which will have to have been checked by BDO the auditors was the existence and availability of the $1,000,000,000 by Mr Syed.

What they are quite trying to achieve with the company it is not clear!

This is not having a go at the guy but just a viewpoint purely based on the set of accounts.

[Strahany]

The accounts do look very odd. Some terminology is unusual but this is probably due to the company being registered in Bahrain.

Key question, though, is where is the cash? Would BDO have needed to see cash in an account/ accounts held by Mr Syed or could they have just received some form of confirmation that he has credit lines extended to him to cover his commitment? If the latter is the case, such credit lines could be from his own company/ companies meaning that, in effect, the cash doesn't exist!

Again, presumably Rothschilds would check this out.

I so want this deal to be real. However, these accounts raise concerns!

[Paul]

More interesting stuff:

WGA Annual report 2009

I'm no accountant but i am quite familiar with relatively new companies regularly approaching us with business proposals. If presented with a document of that style I feel my directors would smile politely and ask for tangible evidence of the company's activities. Then we would sit back and wait..........

I'm now quite bemused by the whole situation. Either the Trust, Rovers & Rothschilds have been expertly mislead or this potential new owner is a financial genius. No idea which is true. I do feel it is very important for there to be a clear statement of where the funds originate, this would confirm or deny many people's worries.

As for the Goldberg stuff a CCJ either exists or it doesn't. If there is no CCJ a rebuttal could have been issued by now. That nothing has been said suggests some careful construction is taking place and that should be a cause for concer.

[philipl]

Those must have been the easiest accounts ever to audit.

There would have been one question- "show me the billion".

After that, everything else was immaterial.

There is a clean audit opinion so the auditors must have seen it and believed it to be clean.

[Bobby G]

Another 10 pages and nothing really useful comes out of it.

All we hear is more potential slander/libel which has not been backed up well online by mystery people, as well as someone who has not come out to clear his name yet.

[philipl]

Paul Kelso in the Telegraph on Ali Syed's credibility test.

Ali Syed is in a bit of a squeeze here:

- the real test of his credibility is happening with the Trust/Rothschilds/Rovers (I doubt the club would be sold to someone whom the Rovers management team would walk away from) and at the Premier League. They will be working to their own timetable.

- on the other hand, every day that passes without saying something, other people are setting the public agenda and defining what he should or should not do.

In his position, on balance I would keep quiet if I believed I had an overwhelming arsenal to flatten the allegations with- that could include one or two minor admissions of guilt. Rovers are not big circulation copy and barring a real red top juicy, neither is Ali Syed. He needs to address the people who decide whether he is capable of buying the Rovers before he addresses anyone else and by not replying he is at least not playing the Goldberg game or doing anything to keep the story alive.

[seekay]

When you think about it though ONE BILLION is quite a lot....

I do wonder where it came from.

[Roversider]

Those must have been the easiest accounts ever to audit.

There would have been one question- "show me the billion".

After that, everything else was immaterial.

There is a clean audit opinion so the auditors must have seen it and believed it to be clean.

Agreed, I looked at these accounts some time ago and came to the same conclusion.

Auditors have been known to get it wrong but this is the key asset so I would have expected this was a key item to verify. Also some of it seems to have materialised in the funding of McCabe so I would be amazed if it turned out to be non-existent.

The questions raised by the authorities in Bahrain? Well, we aren't able to get the detail but there is always the question as to where the funds are coming from. Is this Mr. Syed, as is stated, or from another source? Clarification of that may be what is being required and I'm hopeful WGA will address that satisfactorily.

From Rovers point of view we rely on Rothschilds and the Trust to ensure that the funds are available, from a legitimate source and that the plans for Rovers are credible. I see no reason to distrust that process based on the previous track record of the Trust.

Do I endorse WGA? If they become the owners of Blackburn Rovers that will be after some significant review of them both behind the scenes by Rothschilds et al and in the public domain by journalists such as Mr Goldberg. On that basis they will be given my support (and many others I suspect) and that will grow or disappear based on their actions.

I do not expect to win the Premiership, in fact any plans stating this is the plan in the next 10 years would fill me with concern. We need a steady growth from the stable platform we currently have. If there is benefit in rebuilding the Riverside fine, but otherwise I see no reason for hasty spending.

Any new owners need to see that they are a steward for something that is more than a commercial enterprise. The benefit to them would be in additional forms than a simple return on assets. That includes higher profile in the press as has already been discovered but that also has its problems.

Do I question rich men who want to invest and enjoy their patronage of sport? No, that has been the case since chariot racing and gladiators were the spectacle. Interesting times indeed, but don't expect events to move as fast or in the way we would like.

Patience .....

[modes98]

When you think about it though ONE BILLION is quite a lot....

I do wonder where it came from.

I let him have it. Had it lying round and thought he would make better use of it

[sparkspakespoke]

I let him have it. Had it lying round and thought he would make better use of it

Well if you're giving them out I guess I could take one. Cheque in the post?

[Balwer]

Didn't really get very deep though did it...

http://www.westerngulfadvisory.com/Annual_Report_2009/

Key points

Syed has 90% shareholding in the company, the other 10% is to a company which I imagine represents the rest of the management team.

The gearing level is high (91%) however all the loans are in the form of related party, so this is effectively equity, therefore in reality there is no gearing.

The 1bn in related party loans are given under the name of Ahsan Ali Syed, so it has either come from him and his family or been provided to him outside the business.

The majority of the revenue was generated from advisory fees. This is standard practice for asset management firms and normally represents 1-2% of the total funds managed on an annual basis. There is also however a 10m franchise fee, I am unsure of the details of this however.

There is not £8bn available, there is $850m available to invest, $500m of which has apparently been allocated in two separate, interest-bearing loans, the $350m is 'dry powder'. There are no details of where these loans are invested.

To summarise, a very-rich or very well-financed man has started his own asset management firm, focusing on debt-financing. He has invested $850m into the company. All his revenue appears to have been generated as fees from his own capital, while $500m appears to have been loaned out to two separate businesses. There does not seem to be a clearly stated focus or vision for the business, and nobody at my office here in London has heard of them.

I was wrong, that was almost two hundred pages ago.

[Ricky]

Surely they should have released a full statement by now?

How long does it take to come out and refute the allegations.